To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (I Pet. 5:11)
Jesus Christ, through His Redemption, has won every victory that there is to win, including victory over the ultimate enemy, death. Thus, Jesus Christ has been given all dominion – over all things. This reveals to us the Truth about any possible victory that we could experience in the Christian life: In order to OVERCOME the enemy, we must COME UNDER Jesus Christ as Lord. In short, we have to surrender to the winning side.
When we, “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God,” we are coming under the hand of eternal victory. Thus, rather than win His victory all over again, we live from out of His victory – standing by faith. This is why Peter is able to say, “Resist the devil in the faith,” rather than say, “Defeat the devil.” We are in the victory of Christ by faith and need only resist the Devil by standing by faith in that victory.
The Power of Deception
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (I John 3:8)
When we are joined to the Lord in spirit, that union IS the new creature in Christ. But everything outside of that union remains of the old natural man. You will note that Jesus did not obliterate the works of Satan from the old. He made a new – in Himself. For the new creation in Christ, the works of the Devil are destroyed. But there remains a possibility that Satan could try to get to us through our natural man.
The only power that Satan has today in the life of the saint is that of deception. Satan will blind us to, or lie to us about, the fact that we have victory in Christ. But his lies are not merely doctrinal lies. He can still gain access to us through our natural man – our feelings, emotions, and other dimensions of the soul realm. He can use these to as vehicles to blind us.
The solution is to know Jesus Christ. We cannot discern the lies of Satan until we can discern Jesus Christ. Note John’s words: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Once Christ is manifested to us, no deception can blind us.”